Here I am, a Split second later…

My travels are going really fast. Sometimes it feels like yesterday that I was in Prague and other times I feel like it’s been years. My time in Split also went by fast.

I arrived in the afternoon and went to my hostel, Backpackers Fairytale. It’s pretty close to the bus station and old town. However, unless I missed a direction, it did not say it was on the top floor. I was going up and down the stairs for a bit before I decided to walk all the way up.

This gives the hostel a great view from their balcony of the city and the water. It’s very home-y again. It also helps that there are not many guests due to the winter season.

Sunset from balcony

I might have mentioned this previously, but I am enjoying the quiet of the city. Granted, a few more hostel mates would be nice, but not dealing with hoards of tourist is great. For example, I did a small trip, not even a day trip, to Klis, which has an old fort. It was even used in Game of Thrones, more later, and I was the only one there. I never saw a soul.

Also, during the summer you have to pay to enter, but it was free for me. That has happened before because it was down season. I suppose it’s more costly to have someone sit and collect money than leave the doors open for the few travelers.

The fort was so cool and it had a great view. There was a room on the history of the fort then another room with pictures of Game of Thrones. It’s hard to tell the exact locations in the fort as they used lots of CGI. It’s weird, I can imagine the film crew more than the past people who used to fight for the fort.

My first night there was 4 of us. A woman from Norway who keeps to herself mainly. She is waiting for a credit card and has been in the hostel for 2 weeks, but her mom hasn’t even received it from the bank to forward it on. Now she is a bit panicked because her other card is about to expire. I feel like she could have kept traveling and when her mom got the card then she could have stayed somewhere for a bit.

Anyways, I also had the pleasure of meeting two guys. One was 18 and taking a gap year. If you read previous posts, you know I took a gap year myself after high school. I was very excited to meet him and encourage him.

“What did people tell you about this?” I asked him, pretty sure of the answer.

“That I was ruining my life and that I will never go back to university.” He saw me nodding.

“I imagine similar to what you got.”

But, like me, he was looking forward to going to university next year and had already applied.

The other guy greeted me when I arrived as the hostel owner was absent.

“Where are you from?” I asked.

“Argentina.” I smile,

“Of course you are.” I explained how I met so many due to the tennis match in Zagreb and he nodded saying he was also there.

It was special for him because he’s a tennis coach and his family works at a tennis club.

He gave me a “tour” of the city then we sat on the wall and chilled. I knew I would be running around later and after my long weekend in Dubrovnik, I needed the afternoon off.

Part of the old palace in Split

Sunset in the park

Split isn’t that big, well, the old part isn’t. It used to be a palace of a Roman emperor then it got converted to a town and then it grew outside the walls to present day.

You can go up to the bell tower for a view of the city for 3 euros. It was nice, but you only get sections of the city. I really enjoyed the view from the huge park. Up top, it gives you a view of the whole city next to the water. It’s beautiful.

View from the Bell Tower

View from the park

Split also has its own Christmas markets. At night, all the nights light up the old streets and music is in the air. All the locals come out.

The two guys and I later went out to walk around and see the festivities.

I was feeling quite gross and decided to go on a run along the shore. It was great running again. It is hard to work out while traveling because I want to tour around and see things and running takes time. Time that I don’t have in the winter as the sun sets quite early.

After Klis, I went directly to Salona in Solin. The tourist office said there was no bus from Klis to Solin and I had to go back into the city. However, when I was going to Klis, bus 22 stopped at Solin (there was a sign that said 1000 meters to Salona). Upon the return, I asked the bus driver and he said I can get to Salona with him and he informed me of the stop.

I walked down this dirt gravel road, not sure if I was right. I asked a group of women in front of their house and they said I just keep going about 5 minutes. In total, the walk was less than 10 minutes from the bus stop- very easy.

Salona are more Roman ruins. There is not much there anymore, but it is still cool. I am still in shock that they let people climb all over the ruins. It is pretty cool to stand in places ancient people stood. As I was wandering around, I hear a rumble. I take off my ear phones and all of a sudden the ground shook.

It was an earthquake.

At the hostel later, I was informed by native Croatians that that was rare. It was almost a 5. They also brought up the Italian earthquake tragedy from the summer, which was unusually big for the area.